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<H1 class="no-header">curs_instr 3x 2025-02-01 ncurses 6.5 Library calls</H1>
<PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="curs_instr.3x.html">curs_instr(3x)</A></STRONG>                   Library calls                  <STRONG><A HREF="curs_instr.3x.html">curs_instr(3x)</A></STRONG>




</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
       <STRONG>instr</STRONG>,  <STRONG>winstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvwinstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>innstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvwinnstr</STRONG>
       - get a string from a <EM>curses</EM> window


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
       <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG>&lt;curses.h&gt;</STRONG>

       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>instr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>winstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvinstr(int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwinstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>

       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>innstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>winnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvinnstr(int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
       <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwinnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG>
             <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
       <STRONG>winstr</STRONG> extracts a string from a <EM>curses</EM>  window  <EM>win</EM>,  starting  at  the
       cursor  and  stopping  at  the  end  of the line, and stores it in <EM>str</EM>,
       terminating it with a null character and omitting  any  attributes  and
       color  pair  identifier  that  <EM>curses</EM>  associates  with each character.
       <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG> does the same, but copies at most <EM>n</EM>  characters  from  <EM>win</EM>.   A
       negative   <EM>n</EM>   implies  no  limit;  <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG>  then  works  like  <STRONG>winstr</STRONG>.
       <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">ncurses(3x)</A></STRONG> describes the variants of these functions.


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
       These functions return the count of characters copied from <EM>win</EM> to  <EM>str</EM>,
       or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure.

       In <EM>ncurses</EM>, they return <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> if

       <STRONG>o</STRONG>   <EM>win</EM> is <EM>NULL</EM> or

       <STRONG>o</STRONG>   <EM>str</EM> is <EM>NULL</EM>.

       Functions  prefixed with "mv" first perform cursor movement and fail if
       the position (<EM>y</EM>, <EM>x</EM>) is outside the window boundaries.


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></H2><PRE>
       All of these functions except <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG> may be implemented as macros.

       Reading a line that overflows the array pointed to by <EM>str</EM>  with  <STRONG>instr</STRONG>,
       <STRONG>winstr</STRONG>,  <STRONG>mvinstr</STRONG>, or <STRONG>mvwinstr</STRONG> causes undefined results.  Use of <STRONG>innstr</STRONG>,
       <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinnstr</STRONG>, and <STRONG>mvwinnstr</STRONG> is recommended instead.


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H2><PRE>
       <STRONG>innstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinnstr</STRONG>, and <STRONG>mvwinnstr</STRONG>'s  acceptance  of  negative  <EM>n</EM>
       values is an <EM>ncurses</EM> extension.


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
       Applications employing <EM>ncurses</EM> extensions should condition their use on
       the visibility of the <STRONG>NCURSES_VERSION</STRONG> preprocessor macro.

       X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions.  It specifies no error
       conditions for them.

       X/Open  Curses  Issues  4 and 7 both state that <STRONG>instr</STRONG>, <STRONG>winstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinstr</STRONG>,
       and <STRONG>mvwinstr</STRONG> return <STRONG>OK</STRONG> rather than a character count.  This  is  likely
       an erratum.

       <STRONG>o</STRONG>   SVr3.1  and  SVr4  implemented  <STRONG>winstr</STRONG> as a wrapper around <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG>,
           returning the latter's return value.  X/Open Curses's specification
           thus  may  have  been  an editorial solecism copied from System V's
           documentation (see below) by X/Open,  rather  than  an  intentional
           change.

       <STRONG>o</STRONG>   <EM>ncurses</EM> retains compatibility with System V <EM>curses</EM> behavior.

       SVr4  describes  a  successful  return  value only as "an integer value
       other than <EM>ERR</EM>".

       SVr4 does not document whether <EM>n</EM> counts the null terminator that  these
       functions write to <EM>str</EM>.


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
       SVr3.1  (1987)  introduced these functions.  <EM>winstr</EM>, <EM>winnstr</EM>, and their
       variants.


</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
       <STRONG><A HREF="curs_inwstr.3x.html">curs_inwstr(3x)</A></STRONG> describes comparable functions of the  <EM>ncurses</EM>  library
       in its wide-character configuration (<EM>ncursesw</EM>).

       <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_inch.3x.html">curs_inch(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_inchstr.3x.html">curs_inchstr(3x)</A></STRONG>



ncurses 6.5                       2025-02-01                    <STRONG><A HREF="curs_instr.3x.html">curs_instr(3x)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
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<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
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